to The IPTV is a brand new technology that utilizes a series of Internet protocols to bear and transmit compressed and encoded multimedia digital signals to provide family users with multiple interactive digital multimedia services and value-added services comprising TV programs, by taking a broadband network as infrastructure and taking a household television set or a Personal Computer (PC) as the main display terminal. People can enjoy the IPTV service through various ways, such as a PC, a Set Top Box (STB) plus a television, and a multimedia mobile phone (used for mobile IPTV). From a user's perspective, the IPTV service can provide the personalized and real-time interactive program service different from the non-interactive broadcast service of the traditional television.
In the current IPTV system, the operation mode of the programs is that the user initiates switch of the programs on the STB according to an Electronic Program Guide (EPG), and the STB switches the programs after receiving the request. This mode is still in a passive watching mode of the traditional television, and cannot realize a function of interactive network television through which the user can chat while watching at any time and in any place.